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Congestion Charge?

Where do we define the downtown boundary? The East is easier, I guess if we use the DVP. The West - do we use Bathurst? Spadina?

Perhaps if we built the Crosstown and Christie/Clinton expressways it would be easier to define, but I can't imagine if we did build those (along with Spadina).

London has a nice ring road that was used as the boundary as well.

The tolls may work in London, but London has a bajillion subway lines. We'd need the infrastructure first - tolls don't provide upfront capital.
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London may have a bajillion subway lines, but it also has good regional rail (not the lousy excuse we have in GO Transit), and the Underground is terrible for overcrowding and reliability.
 
The DVP to Rosedale Valley Road to Dupont/rail tracks could work, but the western boundary is harder...we'd want the CNE to be inside the congestion zone, right?

"London may have a bajillion subway lines, but it also has good regional rail (not the lousy excuse we have in GO Transit), and the Underground is terrible for overcrowding and reliability."

Maybe, but it's still better than what we have...if someone is priced off the DVP, what are their transit options? 4 Stouffville trains per day to choose from, or the Yonge line? That's comforting. At this point, tolls on the highways will drive so many cars onto other roads that surface service becomes impossible, and they won't rake in nearly enough money to build more subways - giving GO a radical makeover must be done first.
 
Toll booths or electronic checkpoints can't be put anywhere that someone would be able to go around them.
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True to a point. Any obvious and easy way around the checkpoints would very quickly become highly congested and very slow. Highway 401 is a perfectly viable alternative to 407 provided you're willing to take longer to get to the destination.

I would say we line streets with mixed traffic and heavy transit usage. So streets like Queen, King, Don Mills, Jane, Dufferin, Bathurst, Finch, Steeles, Lawrence, Eglinton, etc. would have checkpoints installed. Pick equivalent streets in the burbs.


Heck, put the cameras and transponders on the public transit vehicles, ambulances, and fire trucks. If a one of those vehicles gets within 50 meters of your vehicle (in front or behind) then you get charged, otherwise you don't. No-one will want to be caught holding up a bus.
 
In Orlando, almost all the expressways are toll roads so that tourists, a large part of the city's traffic, pay for upkeep. There are, however, parallel roads that you can use to bypass the tolls, if you're aware of them.
 
Congestion Charge

not sure if this has been discussed before.

IF toronto had a congestion charge, how much should the charge be and how large should the zone be?
 
The congestion charge should be applied across Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, King, Richmond Hill, Aurora, Newmarket, Markham, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, and the Bridle Path.

The charge should range depending upon the fuel efficiency of the vehicle, with the intention of bankrupting SUV owners.

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I think it should be put on all freeways in the GTA except for users of the new "3 people or more" diamond lanes that should accompany it. The charge should be highest during peak hours and reduce off-peak with the diamond lanes becoming "2 people or more" off-peak as well.
 
I think the first step would be HOT (high-occupancy/toll), like what Enviro mentions. The first lanes to do this? The 401 Express, as these lanes are clearly delinated. Tolls as well as occupancy requirements would change based on demand.
 
There shouldn't be any charges until Public Transit throughout the GTA is brought up to speed and provides a real alternative.

Anyways, the GTA's highway system is not built to accomadate a tolling system. You either have ticket booths at every entry point, and tellers at every exit point to track how far one goes, or flat tolls for crossing a certain point. The latter could be detrimental to Toronto, unless applied throught the GTA. The former, the cuurent on off ramps could not accomadate this.

Its much easier to just keep on raising the gas taxes, and flow the money back to municpalities that way.
 
there should be no congestion charge unless every copper plated zinc cent finds its way to public transit which will further the decongestion.
 
roch: why couldn't 407-style gantries be erected across access to the express lanes?

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I support tolling only in a GTA context. I see little benefit to Toronto going alone. Business will have yet another reason (however unjustifiable) to contemplate leaving the city and any revenue gained will likely be clawed back somehow by senior levels of government. If congestion charges and mass tolling were implemented I think it should be done by a GTA Transit authority with full participation of the province and regional municipalities.
 
roch: why couldn't 407-style gantries be erected across access to the express lanes?
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You mean using Ezpass?

The whole premise with such a system is that everybody has to get the transmitter. To get one you put down a $50 or so deposit (I have one thats good for NYC bridges/tunnels, NY state freeways, and Mass freeways), but you also need a cash lane for those who don't have a transmitter, and for tourists.

With the above system as well, you have seperate dedicated ezpass lanes, optimally, you need more lanes for people to toll through, which would have to be built/created somehow. If you put these tolls in the collecter lanes, its going to create even more congestion around the exit points.

The 407 really is a seperate beast, built really as a premium highway for those willing to shell out more money to use it. Which is why you can have an ezpass system. Its not a necessarily a prerequisite as tolls have been applied to existing systems around the world, but the 407 was built with the ezpass system in mind. I can't even imagine the confusion and political hot buttens that would be pushed when people start receiving fines in the mail if a ezpass were to be implemented GTA wide.
 
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